Dust Ropes
by Lavi
Summary: Please heed the rating. Very dark and twisted. Not much else to say over here right now, but I still hope you'll read it if you can! Chapter four is now up!
1. Shaming of the Sun

Pre-story author notes: Ummm… for one, I'll try not to make these too often. They annoy everybody. P I prefer finishing stories before I post them, but I wanted to get something up since neither is done. Just started this one a couple days back, so it wasn't what I originally intended to post… Oh well!

If you read this, please leave me a review! Or critiques. They make me happy. The former tend to give me more incentive to write, and the other I feel like I ain't received in years. P

Hope no one hates my guts for this…

Kay, I'll stop bugging you now. As they say, on with the fic!

* * *

Chapter One: Shaming of the Sun

* * *

Django lay in a cold room. His head ached as he tried to recall where he was. He groaned and tried to put a hand to his head when he realized he was shackled down. Struggling frantically, and trying to remember, Django froze when he felt a hand graze against his side. 

"Don't think that I'm just going to let you lay here…" chuckled a voice in his ear, as a hand slid across his bare stomach.

The boy started to scream in horror as the pieces began to fit in his mind, but his screams were quickly hushed by a mouth covering his own. He wanted to black out again when the second tongue began to gleefully play around with his. The mouth, after what seemed much longer than a few seconds, pulled away from his own, to be quickly replaced by a cold, metal tube.

"This, my boy, is an antique. It's a bullet gun. They haven't been manufactured since the undeadening began, and most have gotten melted down, but I still got my hands on one. And as long as my hands are on you, you'd best not scream," he cooed, cocking the gun. "Unless you'd rather join yer father…" Django stayed still, but tears were streaming from his eyes.

"Good, I thought so." The man said to Django, as he felt his pants being undone.

* * *

'_Where is he?_' 

Sabata stood at the outside of the Solar Bank, where he had agreed to meet Django.

He was thirty minutes late.

Many people had started to come back to San Miguel recently, so both of them had agreed to help the ones coming back get shelter, and the few that still had houses to help move back in. They had agreed to meet at this building at five o'clock…

Forty-five minutes.

"Maybe he went after some undead," whispered Sabata to himself, walking back towards their room in the inn. But he knew this wasn't like his brother. Django would never leave him waiting like this, unless something serious had intervened. He arrived back at the room and felt his heart stop.

The Gun Del Sol lay on a table in the middle of the room. An hour had now passed.

This was not like him at all. If he was in town, he would've at least taken a break to meet him, and if he was outside, he would definitely be carrying _this_…

The Dark Boy ran downstairs and outside, beginning to worry about his little brother. Where could he have gone?

"Sabata, what's wrong?"

He turned to meet the face of the Earthly Maiden, not wasting a second.

"Have you seen Django?"

"…No… I haven't seen him since lunch, I think," Lita replied, looking startled. "Why? What's wrong? Weren't you supposed to meet him already?"

"Yes, and he hasn't shown up!" Lita's expression began to match his.

"How about we ask around? Surely someone has seen him in the past few hours. Somebody must know where…" She ran off and began to ask the villagers. Sabata looked to the sky, hoping to get some sign of where his brother was, but it wouldn't come. The boy looked back to the city and ran off towards a small crowd.

* * *

Django opened his eyes. 

For the last few hours, he had been trying to block out all the things that were said – and done – to him. His body ached horribly. Besides the terrible feeling that his hips might be broken, the man had also been slitting his flesh, testing out a few knives in the process.

He still stood nearby; Django could hear him zipping up his pants. The young boy sobbed quietly, half hoping that he would be shot anyway.

"What're you crying for? I could've cut you much deeper, you know…" he said, caressing Django's face. This caused him to cry harder, but he was silenced again when a punch collided with his jaw. "You know, I can't take it when you're screamin' yer head off…" But Django wasn't listening to him. An object, barely illuminated in its space in the corner by low candlelight, had caught his eye.

"L-lupo… what's that…?" he whimpered, eyes glued to the thing. It looked so… ugly… almost as if it…

Lupo bent down to Django's ear, whispering,

"You remember Angelo, don't you?"

Django's eyes widened, gave a shuddering gasp, and gratefully fainted.

"Heh, I guess he does…" He chuckled, unlocking the shackles around Django's wrists and, after taking another opportunity to grope him, bound him in ropes and set him across from the little corpse.


	2. Bonfire

Sabata leaned against the wall outside, looking upwards at the night sky. He shivered at the cold air that brushed his face, and thought of his brother, hoping that wherever he was happened to be warm, at least.

The dark boy, standing on the edges of a gathering, glowered at the people in the center, near the bonfire. Very few of them were scared, even though Django was missing. It appeared that only the people that knew him were truly worried. All the others brushed their fear off, saying that he was just either working hard on helping people or fighting the undead.

They thought his younger brother was invincible, or close to it. They had heard of the fights he had conquered and most felt he could take anything that life could throw. Sabata scoffed at them.

"Fools. I don't know why he fights so hard for them."

"I am worried too, but please… do not take your aggression out on them, Sabata. These people are just looking for some hope to cling to. None of them have had it easy these past few years…" Sabata turned his sharp glare toward Master Otenko.

"And they just assume that our lives are roses? Hmph. They're more like thorns. None of them has ever had to deal with Dark Matter infesting their bodies," his voice trembled a little as he continued. "Do you really think any of them had to kill their father again after thinking once that he was already dead…!" The Dark Boy slid down against the wall, resting his chin on his knees. The spirit stared at the boy's face, watching the tears form in his bright, red eyes.

"He is still strong. I have accompanied him since he inherited his father's gun. Whatever trouble he's in, he won't give up."

"I've fought him. Do you remember how he looked? He was standing over me, I thought he was going to collapse… and if I hadn't knocked him over… you and I both know that Hel would've killed him."

"He will survive"

"…You don't know that."

"…"

Just then, Lady stumbled through the crowd towards them, followed by a man with ragged black hair.

"Stop complaining about the deterioration of your house. Be grateful that you have a home to return to."

"But-"

"Quiet, Lupo. Once we've got everyone in some sort of shelter to call home, then we can work on repairs. Creaking floorboards are hardly a call for replacement anyway."

Sabata stared at the absurd man that approached them. He was tall and gangly, but somehow seemed to have a little muscle in his arms. His black hair stretched down to his jaws that seemed too thick for a man of his stature. He looked at both of them and grinned.

"Well… Why're you so down?" Sabata glared back. That should have been obvious. He was sure that they had asked everyone in town about his brother.

"…We've been searching for Django," Otenko replied, also looking a little dumbfounded. "Have you seen him anywhere?"

But the man seemed to be focused on Sabata.

"You're related to him, aren't you?"

"I'm his brother." Sabata was quickly losing his patience.

"Yeah… I saw him at about… one-thirty. He walked by my house. It seemed to me like he was headed off in the direction of the Cathedral…"

"_What_?" He spoke with venom. "Why haven't you told anyone!"

"I didn't realize he was missing…" Lupo looked thoughtful, putting a finger to his lips. "I haven't seen anyone else since then. I locked the door, and went to cleaning my house up!" the man sang. "It's almost back to how it used to be…" He grinned, looking into Sabata's eyes.

"You should come over some time."

"Once I find my brother." Sabata stood up, dismissing the comment, walking in the direction of the Cathedral.

"…Why are you following me?" Sabata turned to face Lady. She looked back, unsettled.

"I don't like him at all… He's been around me since he got here. Used to cling to anyone; before everyone left, that is."

"At least I'm not the only one that hates him," Sabata remarked, stomping to the edge of town and stopped. "You mean he was still like this when…"

"Yes, he was just the same before the undeadening struck this town. But he had a son as well. That boy, Angelo, was a good friend of Django's…"

"I don't remember seeing anyone new near Django's age…" Sabata turned to face the librarian. "What happened to him?"

"I was surprised too. But I asked Lupo. He told me that Angelo had been attacked by the undead. He didn't make it." Sabata's eyes softened.

"…It must have been hard to lose him like that…"

"I'm still surprised. Most men wouldn't want to come back here after what happened."

"You mean the undeadening? I don't find it surprising. He still had a house, after all."

"That's… not what I mean." Lady sighed. The Dark Boy stared back, wondering what she could possibly say.

"I wasn't there when it happened. Actually, I don't think anyone else was around when it happened. Angelo… Ringo once said it was obvious that he preferred Django's company over Lupo's. Once, the boys were outside, Ringo was watching over them. Lupo came over to fetch his son… I think it was getting dark at that time… As I was saying," Lady brushed some hair from her face as she continued. "I really don't know what happened, nobody does, but Ringo became very angry with Lupo… and told him at gunpoint to leave town." Sabata's eyes widened as he heard this. "They left in a wagon early the next morning."

"…Was he really that bad?"

"Not that I ever knew. He did get drunk on occasions and vex us to no end, but he wasn't evil." Sabata stood there for a moment, then nodded and turned towards the cathedral again.

"This is the only lead I have right now…"

_'But what could possibly drive Father to be so angry…?'_


	3. Stairs

Lupo walked back into his house, bottle of whiskey in his hand. His nose was slightly red. Fingering a knob behind some shabby curtains, he opened a door and stepped down a narrow staircase.

_"Hey, Django, will you come'n help me for a sec?" Django stopped and looked up._

_"Lupo? I haven't seen you in years!" the boy said, grinning. "Hey, where's Angelo? Can I say hi to him?_

_"He's following another crowd back. They might be here in a couple days…"_

_"It's been a very long time! What do you want help with?"_

_"I have a few things that need to be moved to my basement. Y'see, my back's gotten kinda bad and-"_

_"Don't worry, I'll do it." Django smiled and stepped inside the house, looking around. "Is that it?" He said, pointing to a wooden crate."_

_"Yup, that's the one!" He walked over and opened a door that revealed a staircase leading down. "It needs to go down there." Django looked down through the opening. _

_"I never knew any of the houses had something like this!"_

_"Yeah, took me a while to realize that this wasn't a normal piece 'o wall either… Well, let's go. After you."_

"_Uh-huh." Django started down the steps, not noticing Lupo back up against an end table to pick up something. He then followed after the Solar Boy. "How far do these stairs go, anyway?"_

_"Quite a while. It makes a good place ta hide, since it's so far down. Makes a great place to hide other things too…" He reached out his hand and pushed. _

_It was a strange sight to behold. The boy had gasped slightly as he lost his balance and toppled down into the black beneath them. Lupo quickly followed, holding a candle and a gun._

_Django lay splayed at the bottom of the stairs. A trickle of blood ran down his face. The man walked over to a side of the room, and set the candle down. He turned back to the young boy, who was still on the floor._

_"Heh, I wonder if you even survived that," he laughed, kicking the body. Django's form gasped from the shock. "Good… our fun was just about to start, anyway." Lupo slid his hands beneath the shirt and peeled the cloth away. Grinning as his fingers traveled across the skin, he slowly dragged his tongue across Django's face, savoring his victory. Django groaned lightly, slowly grabbing back his conciousness. Lupo tugged at the scarf around the neck, eyeing it venomously._

_"I'll never forget this piece of cloth as long as I live…" He fiercely ripped the red cloth from the young boy's neck, causing him to cough. He spat on it and glared._

_"You've ruined my life before, Ringo… but now you've lost." He tossed the cloth aside and chained Django to the floor of the dank stone room. His milky-white teeth gleamed in the darkness._

_"Oh, how you have lost…"_


	4. Tongue

Django sat bound against the wall in the stone room. He had been awake for a while now – but he had no idea for how long. No light could reach him down here – he wasn't even sure it was daytime anymore. He felt terrible. Every inch of his body ached; it hurt even more to move. His skin felt sticky and cold. He could feel all of the blood, sweat, and… and…

Django burst into tears. His mind was screaming, unable to comprehend any more of what was happening to him. He wanted out. He _needed _out. Django thrashed against the ropes, but it was all in vain. Soon, he could feel his bindings cutting through skin. He could feel the warmth of his own blood sliding down his palms when it struck him.

Lupo said that it took him a long time to even find this room in his own house…

How long would it take anyone else to find _him?_

_'I'll be dead by the time they find me, I'll be dead if I scream… the only way out is…'_ He ran his tongue across his teeth. Surely some pain was worth it… just to get away from this place… And he could be with Father again…

The Solar Boy opened his mouth, readying himself to die.

_'It won't hurt for very long… I hope.'_

He froze there for a few more seconds and then-

He broke down again.

Django couldn't bring himself to do it. He admitted quietly to himself that he feared dying a little, but that wasn't what kept him here.

There were still people depending on him. If he died now, the immortals would tear apart everyone he held dear. He felt ashamed for even trying to die in the first place. His eyes met the body of Angelo again. Django shivered. He thought Angelo had been alive and well all of these years. He had really just been a few houses away all this time… His body was tied up in the same manner as Django's. An image quickly flashed through his mind of both their corpses sitting there, in the dark, all his friends and his brother clueless to what had happened.

A breath caressed his shoulder, causing his body to tense up. He knew his torture was about to begin again.

"Did you talk with him at all, _Django?_" He chuckled, gnawing Django's ear.

"Stop it, you're hurting me!" he shrieked. Lupo knocked him down against the floor.

"But that's the point of my fun!" the man yelled, kicking Django in the side again. "Your father humiliated me in front of this entire city! They still don't trust me!" He pressed his foot against Django's skull. "Even if he was still alive, my best way of getting revenge is through… _you._" He picked up the boy and threw him across the room. A cloud of dust formed where he landed, obscuring his sight. When it finally cleared, he realized with terror that he had collided with Angelo's body. Most of it was indistinguishable now, but then he saw the skull, resting near his ankle.

The mouth had been sewn shut.

"See what happens when you scream, boy?" snickered Lupo.

"…How could y-" but he was being kissed again. He still couldn't understand why he was being hurt, again and again.

"You can't escape from me…" Then Django realized that the voice was coming from above him. His stomach gave a horrible lurch. It wasn't his tongue…

He tried to pull away, but Lupo had grabbed his hair and tangled it around his fingers. Django's mind began to fly to random thoughts, some of them making no sense to him whatsoever. He finally gave up and slid into black.


End file.
